How serious should we take mainstream media’s hysteria about 0.00000189 of Mexico’s total population contracting swine flu? Is this a pandemic? By definition, it has to be geographically widespread (see Pandemic Nonsense: Flying Pig Flu).

Some fear this latest flu outbreak will be used to impose martial law. In fact, the Massachusetts Senate just passed such a bill, 36-0. It goes to the House next. Martial law? Home invasions? Two siblings in Massachusetts did recently travel to Mexico and contract the swine flu. Neither are hospitalized and both are at home recovering.

The bill also protects from liability those who assist the government. So, if the vaccine is deadlier than the virus, Big Pharma can’t be sued, it seems.

Reuters reported in WHO warns flu pandemic imminent that the swine flu virus “killed the first person outside of Mexico, a toddler in Texas.” It never clarifies that the baby was from Mexico. The Reuters report makes other misstatements. According to Mexican authorities, as reported by the Washington Post Bureau Chief in Mexico Wednesday morning, April 29:

“The government has announced this morning here that they have confirmed only 49 cases of swine flu, of which 7 patients have died. There are listing another 159 as ‘probable,’ but I’m unclear what that means.” (emphasis added)

Yet, Reuters reported “159” swine flu deaths in Mexico. Only seven have died as of Wednesday morning – in a nation of 109,995,400. That’s 0.0000000636 of the entire population. Even if we use the higher figure of 208 possible cases of swine flu (of which only 49 are confirmed) in Mexico, that amounts to 0.00000189 of the population. Hardly a blip on the map of terrible diseases.

Yesterday, the UK Guardian reported that the World Health Organization’s assistant director general said:

“[E]ight swine flu deaths had been reported to the WHO: seven in Mexico and one in the US. To date, 114 confirmed cases of infection have been reported to the WHO. They are: Canada 13, US 64, Mexico 26, Israel two, Spain four, UK two and New Zealand three.

The New Scientist magazine does not believe this is a genetically engineered strain unleashed on humanity by misanthropes. Instead, it posits that factory farms, legally known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), are likely the culprit:

“The conditions in which animals are kept can favour the evolution of new and deadlier strains.

“For instance, in the wild nasty flu strains that make animals too ill to walk or fly are unlikely to spread far. On crowded factory farms, they can spread like wildfire, helped by the global trade in animals and animal products.”

But small holdings, it says, can also be a source for pig-to-human transmission:

“The interaction of farm workers with animals, especially on small-holdings where pigs, ducks, chickens and children all happily intermingle, also provides plenty of opportunities for viruses to jump species.”

The New Scientist cautions that animal vaccines might make things worse causing super-viruses to evolve. Dr. Horowitz agrees, but on different grounds. He asserts that nano-sized anti-microbial silver-based medicines are safer and far less expensive than mercury and aluminum based vaccines using genetically modified organisms.

“The fact is that we still know so little about flu, and what makes it capable of spreading from human to human, means that deliberately engineering a virus of this kind would be a huge challenge. Yes, it’s possible that this virus was created by a mistake at a research laboratory or a vaccine factory.

“But by far the most plausible explanation is that this monster is the long-predicted product of our farming system.”

Activists have long condemned CAFOs. Grist Magazine named a Smithfield Foods subsidiary as a possible culprit in Mexico – a huge factory farm. (Even Grist and Global Research get the number of dead wrong, probably by relying on mainstream media.)